An hour had passed before I had gotten slightly tired of hearing Eamon's agonized burps echoing around the now empty dining room, I had allowed the teachers to escape to their classes once lunch time ended.

I leaned back in my chair, balancing on it's two back legs. What should I do with Zale? The man was still slumped on his chair in blissful unconsciousness. I wanted to keep him…..but he had come here to redo the binding on the teachers, so he was technically an enemy…..

I sighed and tilted to the right so the chair was balanced on one chair leg. How to bring him over to my side…..Let’s see, from what I know so far, he’s an orphan…..but that didn’t make sense! From what I had heard about the treatment of orphans, and their being banned from Testing, Zale should have inclination to help the very people who deemed him as trash…..unless he didn’t have a choice!

That’s right! As an orphan, no one would give Zale their support, so he had no choice to obey the nobles when they threatened. No single strength, no matter how unique, can survive an onslaught of massive numbers!

I used a spell to bind myself to the chair and then cast float on it. The chair drifted upwards and began to flip over and over slowly. So if Zale wasn’t cooperating willingly, there was a greater chance that I could bring him over to my side, but there was still the problem that I didn’t have enough amassed strength to support Zale against all of the other schools and nobility…..I tilted to the side, causing the chair to begin flipping sideways instead of from top to bottom. If I could give him a solid enough promise to persuade him to join us and keep a low profile for a while, it might work, but what would be an important enough promise to sway Zale?

I suddenly recalled how affected Zale had been by my cute little kid act, he had acted like an adoring father who couldn’t say no to his child’s wishes…..Heh, That might actually work! I flipped the chair back to it’s proper position, and released the float spell. The chair’s four legs thumped firmly onto the floor. Time to set the scene!

“Ne~ Arvid! I’m need to change into clean clothes, help me move Mister Zale to my room~”

I walked to the door and Zale’s chair followed smoothly behind me, the floor beneath it moving in a liquid wave.

The door to my room opened quietly at my approach, and I strode inside.

“Arvid, lay him on the couch and elevate his feet. Get a cloth and a bowl of cool water too.”

I went to my closet and began to feel through the clothes hanging there.

“Hmmm, which one would create the best effected…..”

Misty spoke up.

-Master, are you going for the angelic nurse effect?-

As expected of a fellow trickster, she guessed my intent immediately.

“Yep!”

Misty melted off my arm and moved to my head, starting to do something with my hair.

-Then you should leave this to us girls, hey tail, pick something nice for the master to wear~-

I frowned.

“But I wanted too- Ah!”

Misty was suddenly squeezing my head tightly, and my tail had her spikes pressed lightly against my throat. I swallowed nervously.

“Ahaha, of course you can do anything you want…..”

Women can be very scary when it comes to fashion……

………

Zale’s Point of View:

I slowly became aware of a soothing coolness being swept across my forehead. I sighed at the pleasant sensation, blinking my eyes open slowly to search for the source of it.

A young girl’s face floated in front of me, her gold eyes set in long thick white and gold lashes blinked slowly at me, wet with tears and her lovely childish face was creased with worry. A band of intricately woven silver ran across her forehead, and her long white hair was caught up in in an intricate weave that was woven in with silver vines and flowers. Golden cat ears poked up through the delicate arrangement, twitching adorably…...Wait…...I know someone with gold ears, and long white hair, and a cute face and swirling gold eyes…...only that person was a boy….Yes, his name was Felix and he had dispelled the most difficult binding I had developed yet in mere minutes…..I bolted straight up as memories of what happened, just before the darkness of unconsciousness swallowed me, rushed back to my mind.

“That kid actually dispelled my binding, he was telling the truth!!!”

A small hand tugged on his arm.

“Ne~ Mister, you shouldn’t be sitting up so sooner after fainting….”

I looked down to see the little girl…..no…...Felix! The little boy was dressed in a long floaty pale pink shirt, the front of the shirt tucked into small white shorts and the tail of the shirt ending at mid-thigh. His wings were now white with the edges of their feathers a pale gold. Felix’s lean bare legs were only interrupted by several silver bangles on each of his slim ankles. I slid a hand over my face to hide my fatherly blush, h-he looked so cute!

“Ah, ummmm….., why are you dressed like that Felix?”

Felix pouted, his adorable little pink lips making a small bow. The tears in his eyes seemed to grow slightly larger.

“Misty and my tail mwade me dress like this, they treawted me like their personal dwess-up doll…...I’m a boy, yet I look like a girl now…..Uuuuuuuu”

I reached out and gently rubbed his soft ears to comfort him, while silently praising his tail and this ‘Misty’ for their actions. Felix blushed, but slumped, a slightly dazed smile on his face. His tail rose up, and began to flick happily, as if knowing I was silently praising it.

“Who is this Misty, and how did she and your own tail conspire against you?”

Felix blinked slowly at me, then pointed at the silver metal wound in his hair.

“Misty is my new sword, and my tail has a female consciousness that isn’t under my control at all…...They also have no qualms about threatening bodily harm…….”

I frowned as I processed what he said…..the metal was actually a sword? And his tail had it’s own consciousness? And a female one? The sword was feasible, there were rare old artifact swords that developed their own consciousness….. but why in the world did the tail of a boy have a FEMALE consciousness!!?? I opened my mouth to ask him, but Felix quickly placed his small hand over my mouth.

“I know what you want to ask, I’ve asked my tail myself, and trust me, asking her will be taking your life in your own hands.”

Felix’s face was pale, what in the world had his tail done to him? I nodded to assure him I took his warning seriously, but then remembered he wouldn’t be able to see it. Felix smiled.

“Ne~ I felt you nod in agreement mister~ Now onto more serious matters, Mister, do you really want to destroy my school?”

How in the world had he been able to tell I nodded!? Oh whatever, this kid was an ocean of puzzles that would take thousands of years to solve. I turned my attention to his question. Haaaa, that’s right, I came here to replace the binding on his teachers…..but why did he say I was going to destroy his school? I placed my hand on Felix’s shoulder.

“Felix, I have no intention of destroying your school, I just have to bind your teachers so they and I don’t get in big trouble with some very strong groups of people.”

Felix frowned, looking hurt, with big tears in his eyes.

“You’re wrong Mister Zwale, without the teawchers free will, Dagda isn’t really Dagda, it’s just anowther of those trash schools that focus on strength and cosying up to the royals, instead of technique and true strength. In short, it’s BORING!!!”

I chuckled at his adamant words at first, then paused, truly considering them. I sighed.

“You’re right, I also think Dagda’s way of teaching is far better than the set standard, but on my own, I have to obey the high rank schools orders even if I’m not affiliated with them…...”

I couldn’t help but twist my face in disgust. Felix wilted for a moment, then shot back up with a brilliant smile on his face, as though something had just occurred to him.

“You’re on your own because of you don’t have a family, right Mister!? Then why don’t I just adopt you! As a part of my family, even if it is a commoner family, there won’t be any problems with your orphan status any more!”

I was shocked at the boys offer, it was of course, possible, but almost no one did it because it was considered as a lowering of the family's status, even for commoners, it was a very bad thing to do.

“Kid, you don’t know what you’re saying, this would ruin your family completely, besides, as a commoner family, you wouldn’t be able to offer any support to me anyway.”

Felix snorted in an adorable manner.

“Of course I know what adopting you means in this society's trash rules mister, and I don’t care! As a part of my family, I can get you the support of this school, and another source that I’m working on right now!”

I frowned, he didn’t care? And what was this other source?

“Even if you don’t care about the effects of adopting me into your family, this middle rank school, no matter how unique, is no where near strong enough to face off against all of the high schools. And what is this other source you’re talking about?”

Felix waved his hand dismissively, and adorably adult smile on his face.

“Not right now it isn’t, but if you give me enough time I can change that, and the other source is a group of people in the forest I’m training right now. Ne~ I have something else that might persuade you as well, Mister Zale~”

Without letting me respond, Felix smiled eagerly and leaned towards me.

“I’m working on a big plan right now, how would you like to join in a rebellion with me against this stupid social structure~”

I stared at the young boy, this was probably one of the craziest things he had said yet…….No, that’s not true, he has said far crazier things…...but for some reason, I couldn’t dismiss his proposal, I felt strongly that he, this strange little boy, could accomplish something no one else could.

A grin broke out across my face.

“Alright, I’m in!”

Felix smiled happily, clapping his hands in delight.

“That’s great Mister, now first things first! Time for me to become your Papa!”

I froze.

“Ah, um, what did you just say?”

Felix tilted his head, confused.

“Since I’m adopting you, I’m becoming your Papa, right? Don’t worry Mister Zale, I’m already quite used to be called that because of Void….”

A high rank monster is calling a seven year old kid Papa!? No….Wait….That doesn’t matter. I don’t want to call this kid Papa, I want to be able to call him son…..

“Um, kid, isn’t more natural with our age difference to call me Papa, and you be the son?”

Felix frowned.

“But you can’t be my Papa because I already have a dad, and in actual age difference, I really should be the one to take the father role…...but in this mortal form, Zale’s common sense is the right one……..Alright Mister, you can be my Uncle Zale!”

Felix puffed his chest out proudly at his idea. I sighed quietly in relief. Felix hopped up onto the couch next to me and held out his hand.

“Tail, if you would do the honors~”

Felix’s tail drifted happily to Felix’s hand. A single spike suddenly appeared on the tail’s tip and she quickly sliced Felix’s palm open.

“Now it’s your turn, Uncle~”

I cautiously stretched out my hand and the tail sliced my palm open in a flash. Felix grasped my hand, allowing our blood to mix together. There was a flash of power and paper scrolls suddenly appeared in front of Felix and I. Hrmm, was this how an adoption worked? I was a little fuzzy on the details. I pulled my hand gently away from Felix’s hand and reached to grab the scroll that had appeared in front of me. Before I could, Felix’s tail wrapped around my hand and emitted a warm light. It released my hand and I saw that the wound on my palm had vanished….Healing powers!? Hmmmm, I placed it in the growing bin at the back of my mind labeled Strange Thing About The Adorable Kid Named Felix.

I opened the scroll, it read:

Congratulations on becoming a family member of the mysterious all-powerful being whose current name is Felix Bardon! You will find that people will instinctively sense that you’re a member of a powerful family! The only drawback of this bond is that you are not allowed to hurt any members of your family.

The properly bonded members of your new family are:

Void the Parasite Lizard-Chicken

The infamous Misty, the Sword of Illusion and Space!

The Crybaby Known As Fate

Though not properly acknowledged with a bond yet, the honorary members of your new family are:

Seph Bardon

Adrianne Bardon

Aaron Bardon

Adrian Redsword

Arvid

The Monster Known as Raina

All other honorary member are not listed because due to their location on different worlds, they are inconsequential.

Felix’s surprised voice interrupted my focus on the incredibly strange letter.

“Eh!? Why isn’t Arvid a part of my properly bonded family member, he practically came into existence because of me…..Eh, well I can get his and Raina bonds done later. Why in the world did this happen!? It’s never happened in other worlds that I’ve made bonds…….Could it be because this body has some of my actual blood in it!? Ehe, how interesting!”

Felix was running the tips of his fingers across a scroll almost identical to mine. I was just starting to realise how weird the child that I had just become ‘Uncle’ to really was……..